T.H.E. Show Newport 2016

Silverline Audio's tiny SR7 loudspeaker punches above its weight…

I've included the long view of this room to demonstrate the lengths to which Ocean Way Audio's Allen Sides, in partnership with Viola Labs, went to achieve reference quality sound at T.H.E. Show…

My beat at T.H.E. Show 2016 was the ground floor. En route to the audio exhibits, I was stopped dead in my tracks by this beautiful black Bugatti. No information on this particular car was available, but I assumed it was part of the display of tasty automobiles in the Hotel Irvine's lobby and outdoors pavilion, put on by Reus Car Audio Design, Whitledge Design, Wyred 4 Sound, Magnum Automotive Design, and The Source Audio Video Design Group. Pride of place in the car exhibit was Sony's Hi-Res Audio demo vehicle, which had been shown off two days earlier at the Capitol Studios event in Hollywood.

At one point, an attendee approached me in the hallway and said, "Is it just me, or are a lot of these rooms bright?"

Stereophile Editor John Atkinson and I drove down from deepest Hollywood to arrive at T.H.E. Show Newport late on Thursday night, in time for the public opening the following morning…

Day One was press day, with only we ink-stained wretches (or at least the carpal-tunnel afflicted) invited to the party.

T.H.E. Show Newport returns to its new venue at Hotel Irvine this Friday–Sunday, June 3–5, starting at 10am. By far the largest high-end consumer show on the West Coast of North America, T.H.E. Show promises 149 active exhibit rooms, with 19 of those big and even bigger than big rooms; 68 exhibit tables in the Marketplace and Marketplace foyer, including perhaps 16 headphone exhibitors in separate areas within the Marketplace. You can read the entire show guide here. . .